About this project

Infected

$111,821

4,764

The great Black Death has come to you in the Middle Ages, ravaging everyone you know. A Plague Doctor visits your village, promising help. Can you trust him, or will you be next?

Infected can play 5 to 6 people with one copy, and scales up to 7 to 12 players with two game copies. It takes just 10 minutes to play.

Infected is a quick, strategic, secret role, semi-cooperative social game. One of the party is a Plague Doctor, spreading the Bubonic Plague. The Villagers need to find and rid themselves of the evil doctor before they succumb to the greatest plague in history.

Card illustrations by Artur Jag

Players will try to vaccinate their fellow villagers in their quest to gather information and protect each other, while finding the Plague Doctor.
If you are the Plague Doctor, you’ll try to spread the disease as quickly as possible so that you are the lone victor.

Here’s the catch: no one knows who anyone else is.

Do you have what it takes to survive the worst of the Bubonic Plague, or will you become Infected?

Infected is a fast moving game using strategy, deduction, logic, skill, and people reading. It takes just about 10 minutes to play, so players can jump in and play again quickly. This is a social deduction game in the vein of Mafia or Werewolf, but plays much faster. Infecting or vaccinating others is done by passing cards in a predetermined order so that players can hopefully deduce who did what, where, and when. Why is another story, however.

Infected includes everything you need to play the game, including 70 game cards, a custom dice, 6 player chips, rules, and a turn marker in the form of a Plague Doctor miniature!

Infected has been played hundreds of times by a bunch of tabletop gamers, and players love it. Here is what they loved most:

Lots of strategy

Language independent

Fantastic art

Using logic and reading other players is fun

Looking sympathetic while infecting your friends is fun

Game time is just 10 minutes

It’s fun to be the “bad guy”

The game is infectious, just like the disease

It’s simple to learn

Each single “Infected” game can have up to 6 players, and with two game copies, is scalable for 7 to 12 players

Featuring art from Lindsey Kustusch

INFECTED features special art to make it language independent.

Some of the cards giving vaccinations and granting safety...

While the Villagers have cards which can vaccinate against the Plague, the Plague Doctor is trying to infect others. If you take a peak and see any of these, you could be in trouble...

Will you be next to become Infected?

And now introducing the 4 Contagious Villager Cards, a Kickstarter Promo Pack, included free for backers of Infected.

The Plague Doctor Miniature:

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The game needs a turn marker to determine who declares first at the end of each round. We could definitely have thrown in a cardboard disc for this. But instead, a detailed, sculpted miniature was discovered to be a lot more fun. Because why not?!

We have already approved the miniature with the manufacturer, whose team has reviewed and approved it for production. - Check out the 360 degree video of the Plague Doctor who is trying to infect you with the Bubonic Plague.

If you would like to also play sometime with a larger group of 7 to 12 people, grab 2 copies and you can do that! The Plague Doctor thanks you.

GAMEPLAY:

Out of the group of players, one player is spreading the Bubonic Plague, while others are trying to escape it. If a player is infected with the Plague (by being passed one of the Infection cards from the Plague Doctor), that player is out of the game – UNLESS they have been vaccinated.

To begin the game, the two types of card sets, each containing 10 cards, are made: One for the Plague Doctor, and all other stacks for the Villagers. Players each choose a random set of cards so that no one knows who the Plague Doctor is. The Plague Doctor has the ability to give infection cards to other players, while Villagers can vaccinate each other.

Here’s the catch: no one knows who anyone else is.

Each round, players pass a card to another designated player. (According to the passing iterations, a card could be passed left, right, across, skipping a player to the left or right, etc...)

The Plague Doctor can give an immediate infection, a 1 round delayed infection, or a 2 round delayed infection.

Villagers can give an immediate vaccination, or a 1 round delayed vaccination.

Additional cards, including Safe Cards, Roll Dice Cards, add additional strategy to the game. If you are passed the man pushing the wheelbarrow cart (Roll Dice card), you'll have to roll the dice to see if the bubonic plague has grabbed hold of you. Was the person who gave you a Safe Card a fellow villager, or were they throwing you off of their trail, lying in wait to ambush you? Have you vaccinated the Plague Doctor?

When you are passed a card, you look at it and then keep it face down on the table in front of you. Only you will see those cards. (Those cards are not added to your hand of cards that you pass to others).

After passing cards each round, players in turn declare if they are “safe” or “infected.” Infected players are out of the game, while remaining players stay for another round.

A player can attempt a guess at who the Plague Doctor is, but if they are wrong, they are out of the game. If they are right, all of the Villagers win, and the game is over.

The Plague Doctor wins the game if the number of players comes down to just the Plague Doctor and 1 other player. The Villagers win if the Plague Doctor becomes Infected or if his/her identity is guessed by a Villager.

If a player is handed an Infection Card, they can no longer guess (nor tell anyone else) who the Plague Doctor is, as they of course now know.

Illustrations and icons create this language independent game.

THE ART:

Infected utilizes skill, logic, deduction, strategy, and people reading in this semi-co-op, secret role, social game themed around the Bubonic Plague. From everyone at the table, one of you is secretly spreading the Plague, while everyone else is trying to escape it. Can you rid yourselves of the traveling Plague Doctor while keeping everyone else safe, or will you succumb to an ugly death?

CREDITS: Game designed by Bryan Sloan. Published by Black Forest Studio. Card face illustrations by Artur Jag. Inspired crow art by Lindsey Kustusch. Miniature crafting by Slawek Kosciukiewicz. Card icons by Josh McDowell. Video by JC Trombley. Card back illustration by DeviantArt's Snook-8. Additional art by Anna Shulgina. Played in the very near future by you.

Infected is a $15 game which makes it well below any extra taxes, so it automatically ships Customs Friendly. Thank you!

Risks and challenges

I've produced 6 other projects on Kickstarter, including the social game Emotional IQ, and critically acclaimed playing card decks like AVES, British Monarchy, and Romeo and Juliet. The art and sculpture for the game are already complete, and we already have quotes and approval to manufacture the game! Shipping is also good to go, and there are no extra taxes due to the game being under the VAT pricing threshhold. There is always the risk of another Bubonic Plague breaking out, which could affect the timeliness of the game being produced, but in all likelihood, everything will be on time. I'm always here to answer questions! - Bryan Sloan, Black Forest Studio